Why is America’s Military Budget So Outrageously High?

Congress just approved a $778 billion dollar military budget, which is the most money we’ve spent on our military since World War Two, EVEN AFTER ACCOUNTING FOR INFLATION. It’s more than what we spent during the the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Cold War, and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In fact, the 2022 budget is $25 billion dollars MORE than what the Pentagon even asked for. Last summer, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was asked if an extra $25 billion for unfunded extras would be helpful to them and he said, quote “The answer is no, in my professional opinion. If they were critical, then they [would have been] higher on the priority list.” HE SAID NO, AND CONGRESS GAVE IT TO THEM ANYWAY!

And by Congress, we mean a strongly bipartisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans — on seemingly the only issue that they have ever agreed on: giving more money to the largest military in the world by such a huge margin that the next 11 countries on the list could pool all of their military spending together and still not equal what we spend in a single year. 

Meanwhile, the world is barreling headfirst into irreversible and cataclysmic climate change, the entire bottom has dropped out of the jobs market leaving millions unemployed, the middle class is close to extinction as hundreds of thousands of people can barely afford housing or food, and Congress has spent the majority of this year debating how to spend the LEAST amount of money possible on solving these problems, while funnelling trillions of dollars into the pockets of defense contractors like Lockheed Martin to build jets that don’t fly.

The real numbers here are unbelievable: when looking at the intensely scrutinized Build Back Better Act, the total deficit projection of the social safety net bill is $367 billion dollars over ten years, after GENERATING 1.5 trillion in revenue. On the other hand, the defense budget is projected to add THE ENTIRE 7.5 trillion dollar cost to our national debt.

That’s not an exaggeration. They’re spending 20 times more on our military than they are on providing support to the middle class and working poor during a global pandemic and one of the worst economic crises in US history. AND they’re not justifying the military budget with tax increases or spending cuts, they’re just adding it to the national debt wholesale, with almost no oversight, debate, or analysis. 

Every time you hear someone like Joe Manchin or Mitch McConnell talk about their concerns in raising the national debt, it’s only in regards to spending money on helping Americans. But when it comes to spending money on military-corporate contracts for Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon, there is literally no limit, they’ll even tack on another $25 billion for fun. There’s no discussion on what it’ll do to inflation, how we’re going to pay for it, how to reduce the burden on the taxpayer, questions of fiscal responsibility, or what the money is even going to be used for — much less a debate on why the hell we’re spending MORE money after pulling out of our longest war ever.

Our perpetually increasing, and increasingly absurd military spending is nothing short of outrageous. Ethically, morally, fiscally, and logically, it is a sign of a decaying empire funneling money to make up for it’s failures on the global stage, and obviously, it’s not working. We have lost every single war we’ve been in since World War Two, with the arguable exception of the Gulf War, 30 years ago. We are an unwelcome military presence globally, and our only measurable success has been subverting democratically elected governments in South America for the benefit of the global aristocracy.

It is an embarrassment that both parties in Congress are so devoted to spending more money to send underprivileged teenagers into deadly conflicts around the world, and then refusing to help the ones that come back alive. 

Our bloated military is a malignancy on the United States and the world, both of which would be unfathomably better off if we spent even 1/10th of our military budget on food, housing, medicine, childcare, and education instead of lining the pockets of billion-dollar companies that are using our money to autonomously bomb innocent civilians in other countries.